1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image forming apparatus that includes an image forming unit, and a scanner as an image reading unit is widely known. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2006-65188 discloses an image forming apparatus that includes an image forming unit, a scanner supported above the image forming unit, a discharging unit configured to discharge sheets from the back side to the front side of the image forming unit, and a discharged-sheet tray for stacking the sheets discharged by the discharging unit. The scanner and the discharged-sheet tray are rotated individually to facilitate maintenance work inside the image forming unit.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2005-242267 discloses an image forming apparatus that includes an image forming unit, a scanner supported above the image forming unit, a discharging unit configured to discharge sheets from the back side to the front side of the image forming apparatus, and a discharged-sheet tray for stacking the sheets discharged by the discharging unit. The scanner and the discharged-sheet tray are rotated integrally to facilitate maintenance work inside the image forming unit.
Japanese Patent No. 3356172 discloses an image forming apparatus that includes an image forming unit, a scanner rotatably supported above the image forming unit such that a space for discharging sheets is formed between the image forming unit and the scanner, and a discharging unit configured to discharge sheets from the front side to the back side of the image forming apparatus. The image forming apparatus further includes a front part that is rotated to fix a paper jam.
In the image forming apparatuses disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Nos. 2006-65188 and 2005-242267, the discharging unit is positioned on the back side of the image forming apparatus and sheets are discharged from the back side and stacked on the front side. For this reason, short sheets are discharged on the discharged-sheet tray on the middle or back side, and thus, not taken easily from the discharged-sheet tray.
In the image forming apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2006-65188, the replacement of consumed parts requires troublesome operations such as holding up the scanner first and then opening the discharged-sheet tray. Furthermore, the structure increases the number of parts of the image forming apparatus, thus increasing the cost.
In the image forming apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2005-242267, the scanner and the discharged-sheet tray are configured to rotate integrally. With the structure, even when sheets are present on the discharged-sheet tray, the maintenance work inside the image forming apparatus can be performed. However, the image forming apparatus needs a pressing member to press sheets on the discharged-sheet tray to prevent the sheets from falling off the discharged sheet-tray when the scanner and the discharged-sheet tray are rotated. Such a pressing member increases the cost and restricts the size (the length in a direction in which sheets are discharged) and number of sheets stacked on the limited space between the scanner and the discharged-sheet tray. As a result, miniaturization of the image forming apparatus cannot be achieved.
In the image forming apparatuses disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Nos. 2006-65188 and 2005-242267, sheets are transferred on the back side of the image forming apparatus, and then discharged to the discharged-sheet tray after being. Therefore, if a paper jam occurs inside the image forming apparatus, a back cover has to be opened to fix the paper jam. For this reason, a space is required behind the image forming apparatus to open the cover.
Meanwhile, the discharging unit of the image forming apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 3356172 is positioned on the front side of the image forming apparatus, and sheets are discharged from the front side and stacked on the back side of the image forming apparatus. This structure requires troublesome operations for maintenance work. For example, to replace consumed parts, a transferring unit in front of the parts needs to be taken out of the image forming apparatus from the opened front cover.